Many existing public locations, both indoor and outdoor, have luminaires installed. Even though these luminaires are intended to benefit the public they are often times an annoyance for a would be vandal or thief. Therefore, luminaires have long have been targeted for disablement or destruction by vandals, thieves, and others seeking to reduce the amount of light present in a given locale. Luminaire electrical component housings and lamps contained within the electrical component housings of such luminaires are typically fragile in construction. Physical impact or even mere jarring can disable a luminaire or even destroy a portion thereof. The damage can occur to the electrical component housing, lamp, lens, or other component thereby extinguishing the light emitted by the luminaire. Attempts have been made to address this problem for those seeking to maintain the functional status of a luminaire in a public place. This has been addressed by constructing armored luminaires which have an armored electrical component housing or by placing the luminaire out of reach to the public. However, the armor has tended to make the luminaire less aesthetic than desired and the locating of the luminaires out of reach often times decreases the ability of the luminaire to light a desired area. The armor and location of the luminaires has also tended to increase maintenance costs associated with keeping the luminaires operational. More recently, vandal resistant luminaires have been constructed of plastics. However, these luminaires have lacked the capability to resist tampering and to provide an aesthetic luminaire as is desired.
Thus a need continues to exist for luminaires to resist the attempts of vandals, would-be thieves, and the like from destroying the luminaire or extinguishing the light emitted thereby while providing adequate light, protection from environmental elements, and a means for maintaining the luminaire without excessive maintenance costs.